Fleetwood Mac’s Rumours was released today in 1977 (click here for my FM playlist). Coming 18 months after 1975’s eponymous Fleetwood Mac, the album completed the transformation of the band from a late-60s, moderately successful British blues-rock outfit to a juggernaut, pop-rock phenomenon. Within months of its release, the LP shot to the top of the charts and spawned four U.S. Top 10 singles (“Dreams,” “Don’t Stop,” “Go Your Own Way” and “You Make Loving Fun”). It’s full of classic 70s vocals and jingle-jangle guitar licks, not to mention thinly-disguised references to the romantic inner turmoil that was beginning to pull the band apart. Original (and the lone remaining) founder Mick Fleetwood was enduring a messy divorce, caused in part by his affair with new singer Stevie Nicks, whose relationship with guitarist Lindsey Buckingham was unraveling, and bandmembers John and Christine McVie were separating and headed for divorce as well.

The rock star version of Peyton Place didn’t stop Rumours from quickly becoming the one of the best-selling albums of all-time. To be a part of the amorous sub-plot, you’ll find Rumours available as a CD or individual mp3 downloads on Amazon (click here) and as $.99 download tracks for iPods and mp3 players on iTunes (click here).

This second full week of January is a week for debut albums. First-outs this week include The Beatles’ Introducing…The Beatles (1/10/64), Led Zeppelin’s 1/12/69 debut, Aerosmith’s 1/13/73 first effort and ZZ Top’s First Album from 1/16/71. Today, January 14, marks the 39th anniversary of Paul Simon’s eponymous debut album (click here for my Rhymin’ Simon playlist).

Hot off his decade-long, multi-platinum gig with partner Art Garfunkel in the acclaimed 60s folk-pop duet Simon & Garfunkel, Simon cooled off for two years to work on his debut album as a solo artist. When released 1/14/72, Paul Simon became the first of three straight Top Ten, million-selling studio LPs for Simon (not including the 1974’s Live Rhymin’).

Paul Simon expands from the straightforward folk-pop music of his Simon & Garfunkel years and includes reggae influences (“Mother And Child Reunion,” a Top Ten hit), African rhythms and texture (“Duncan”), and Latin tinges (“Me And Julio Down By The Schoolyard”). This subtle exploration of different musical genres continued with the R&B and gospel influences on 1974’s There Goes Rhymin’ Simon and the jazzy sounds of 1975’s Still Crazy After All These Years, which hit #2 and #1 on the U.S. pop charts (Paul Simon made it to #4 in 1972). After a relatively quiet 10 year stretch, Simon returned in 1986 with Graceland, an album deftly mixing American folk-pop with South African mbaqanga music. Those four albums, plus the heavy Latin sounds of 1990’s The Rhythm Of The Saints are Paul Simon’s best five and an incomparable collection of world-pop from one of the best all-around folk-pop songwriters of all-time.

Paul Simon is available for download on iTunes (click here) and can be purchased as a CD or mp3 downloads from Amazon (click here).

Two years and many moons before David Bowie stepped onto the world stage with his 1969 single “Space Oddity,” he released his eponymous debut album on Deram/Decca records on January 5, 1967. Long out of print as a vinyl record and available now in several expanded CDs (with multiple early Bowie bonus tracks), the album’s nothing like the David Bowie (aka “The Chameleon”) we came to know and love starting with “Space Oddity.” David Bowie is a mixed bag of vaudevillian stage songs (“Uncle Arthur”), tuba-based marching tunes (“Rubber Band”), slightly twisted MOR pop-rock tunes (“Love You Till Tuesday”), and a few memorable mid-60s psych-pop ditties (“Maid Of Bond Street”).

You needn’t listen carefully at all to hear Ziggy Stardust, Major Tom, Thin White Duke and other 70s/80s Bowie characters waiting for their time to come on David Bowie. If you’re a Bowie diehard, this album should be in your collection. If you’re just a casual Bowie fan, it’s worth a close listen.

My Top 25 David Bowie (the artist) tracks are available for download at DrRock.com (click here). David Bowie (the album) is on Amazon as an expanded CD (click here) and on iTunes (click here) as individual downloads.

Yes released their fourth album, Fragile on January 4, 1972, a scant six months after Rick Wakeman left The Strawbs and joined Yes, bringing synthesizers and another strong classical music background to a band on verge of breakthrough. While contractual issues precluded any official credit for his keyboard and co-writing work on the album, Wakeman’s presence solidified the band, their sound and their place in rock history. Fragile quickly rose to #4 on the Billboard 200 chart and pushed the band to the forefront of the burgeoning prog-rock movement.

The success of the album was driven by the surprise hit single “Roundabout,” a shortened version of the 8-plus minute romp on the album. The cut-down single became a cross-over AM and heavy FM hit, an extremely unusual achievement (not to mention prog-rock on AM!) that lifted an otherwise excellent prog-rock album to unheard of heights and began a nearly 40 year reign for Yes as the quintessential and longest-running prog-rock show on Earth.

Surprisingly, Fragile is not on Rolling Stone magazine’s Top 500 Greatest albums of all time. I think it should be, and in the first 100 at that. However, it is available as a CD on Amazon (click here for my Yes album list) and download tracks on iTunes (click here to access my Yes playlist).

London Calling was released by The Clash and Epic Records in the U.K. 31 years ago today, December 14, 1979 (it came out in the U.S. in January 1980).

Without losing one snarling bit of the raw, nervous, socio-politically-nihilistic core of pure punk, The Clash spanned the huge gap between late 70s mainstream pop-rock, power pop and straight-up rock ‘n roll (on the one side – the left?) and the incessant driving noise of pure punk rock (on the right? – or whichever). They pulled everyone back into the middle ground. And London Calling’s no commercial sell-out. A double album (yes!), it’s is full of catchy riffs, toe-tapping rhythms, sing-along lyrics and more distinct genres than the Sex Pistols or Generation X could ever play. And it’s still very much pure punk.

London Calling mixes the shuffling reggae sounds of “Rudy Can’t Fail,” the anachronistic, danceable celebration of “Revolution Rock,” the pulsing but melodic punk of “Hateful,” the roots rockabilly of “Brand New Cadillac,” the metal-rock title track, and the hard-edged pop-rock of “Train In Vain” (which was not listed on the cover or Side 4 label of the original Epic vinyl release – but I’ve got mine!).

London Calling is an essential LP in any rocker’s collection. It’s a Grammy Hall of Fame record, #8 on the Rolling Stone Magazine list of the 500 top albums of all time, and #1 on the magazine’s Top 100 Albums of the 80s.

It’s available as a CD on Amazon (click here) and download tracks on iTunes (click here). You must own this one if you don’t already! Trust me.